Cleaned Out at Sabine Crossroads

After waiting all afternoon to go into action at Sabine Crossroads, Dan Dickinson and the 2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery were quickly overwhelmed once the action began. 

    "At every discharge, terrible gateways were made in their ranks and the shells we plunged into their midst scattered death and destruction far and wide," he wrote. "Their bullets swept the hill upon which we were posted in perfect showers but happily they aimed too low and none on our piece were killed, though two men were mortally wounded and eight of ten cannoneers were wounded. I am one of the lucky two who were not wounded though how I escaped is a miracle and a great wonder to me. One ball went through my pants at the knee, another struck my belt but did not penetrate. We brought our limber forward when there was no longer any hope of support or succor coming to aid us, limbering our gun when the Rebels were only 75 feet or so from our cannon. Five of the six horses attached to the limber were shot dead and the other was badly wounded. We were ordered to retreat and as there was no hope of bringing off our piece, we left going down the hill while the enemy with oaths yelled surrender."

          Dan Dickinson’s account of his battery being overrun at the Battle of Sabine Crossroads, written to his father in Waukegan, Illinois, first appeared on page one of the May 21, 1864, edition of the Waukegan Weekly Gazette.

 

The 2nd Massachusetts Light Battery under Captain Ormand F. Nims lost all six of its guns, 82 horses, and 24 casualties at Sabine Crossroads. 

Grand Ecore, Louisiana

April 16, 1864

My dear father,

          We have had a great battle. On the afternoon of Thursday April 7th our battery was ordered to the front as skirmishing was going on. We galloped through the village of Pleasant Hill and again entered the pine woods. We were unable to get into position owing to the woods being very thick and dense and we were ordered back. We were all disappointed for since leaving Alexandria our cavalry had been constantly skirmishing and we had not be able to get into any of it. But little we thought that speedily Nim’s battery would see a hard day…

          On Friday morning the 8th we started at 6 o’clock. The Rebels made a very obstinate stand at a mill creek six miles from Pleasant Hill but were driven out before our battery came up. At this place, my section (the left) halted while the right and center sections went on under the command of Second Lieutenant [Joseph W.] Greenleaf. These sections repulsed a charge of the enemy about 1 o’clock before we came up. Our section marched slowly and easily along, arriving at the position of the rest of our battery at about 2:30 in the afternoon. We went into battery and as the time had come to open action, some threw themselves on the ground and went to sleep while other reclined against the pines, passing the time in conversation.

          At 3:30, orders came for us to open the ball. On our right in the woods we heard heavy skirmishing which slowly approached near to us. We directed our piece to the right and our infantry entered the woods on the right. In the short space of 10 minutes, being outflanked and driven round to the center, our infantry reappeared right before out battery not more than 200 feet from us, followed by an overwhelming force of drunken, yelling Rebels. They halted before us for a minute, poured a terrible, withering volley into the enemy, then came back towards the artillery in a crouching run and passed by us, going down the hill and across the field as fast as they possibly could.

Captain Ormand F. Nims
2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery

          We fired very fast indeed, and the roar of our pieces would not have ceased 10 seconds before it boomed forth again. I doubt not but that their generals could say like Marshal Lannes “I could hear the bones crush in my command like glass in a hailstorm.” Rebel prisoners since captured say that the taking of our battery proved to be the most terrible work they ever had and if we had had only a small force of infantry to support us that they never could have stood such fire. At every discharge, terrible gateways were made in their ranks and the shells we plunged into their midst scattered death and destruction far and wide. They only halted once, as if debating upon the expediency of their plan, and no doubt but those in advance would have been glad to have fallen back. But they were charging in four deep, long columned lines and those in the rear forced those on who were in the advance.

          Their bullets swept the hill upon which we were posted in perfect showers but happily they aimed too low and none on our piece were killed, though two men were mortally wounded and eight of ten cannoneers were wounded. I am one of the lucky two who were not wounded though how I escaped is a miracle and a great wonder to me. One ball went through my pants at the knee, another struck my belt but did not penetrate. We brought our limber forward when there was no longer any hope of support or succor coming to aid us, limbering our gun when the Rebels were only 75 feet or so from our cannon. Five of the six horses attached to the limber were shot dead and the other was badly wounded. We were ordered to retreat and as there was no hope of bringing off our piece, we left going down the hill while the enemy with oaths yelled surrender.

          I escaped being wounded again by miracle. There was a man behind who was shot through the brain and nearly struck me when he fell over. Another on my left was shot through the groin and fell. There was quite a number shot while going down the hill. When I arrived in the woods on the east, I found the road blocked up with wagons from which the mules had been detached filled with infantry and cavalry without officers, officers without men, the utmost confusion reigning on all sides as everyone sought as best he could to save his own life.

          Soldiers, panic-stricken, heedless, and paying not the slightest attention to the prayers of officers to rally again. The road was jammed, crammed with a demoralized, crowded mass, wounded men crawling to the rear to be cared for, General Banks and his staff almost praying the men to form in line. The enemy was close upon us and the shells shrieking through the air burst on all sides, adding to the terrible panic.

General Nathaniel P. Banks and wife

          Although this was the first time I had been under fire, yet I felt perfectly cool throughout and did not feel the least fear and would have been perfectly willing to have gone into action again if I had known that I should be killed. My companions were perfectly cool and we all endeavored to rally the troops but in vain. I saw three men cut down for refusing to halt. Three of our pieces were left on the hill and three that were not so exposed to the enemy’s fire were brought away from the field and got into the woods, but the wagon train completely blocked the road and we were ordered to spike the guns and leave them since it was impossible to get them away.

          The mass retreated in a manner perfectly terrible and frightful for eight miles. It was nearly dark when we beheld the 19th Corps drawn up before us in a line of battle. It was the 13th Corps that retreated so disgracefully and it was the 19th Corps that saved us all from being captured. As the enemy came up, they were met by a withering volley from the whole corps which lasted for two minutes or more. The enemy was checked. That day was a reenactment of Bull Run and the enemy captured 22 pieces of artillery. I am not acquainted with the loss on our side but it must have been heavy in killed and wounded.

          That night our army fell back 18 miles to Pleasant Hill and on Saturday [April 9, 1864] the Rebels got worsted. Western troops fought that day under General Smith who drove the enemy six miles. All the artillery had been recaptured except one battery which the Rebels will keep out of our way since they have been fighting for it for over two years. General Sims, the chief of Rebel artillery in this department, sent his regards to Captain Nims yesterday saying that our battery was the best he had ever seen and that he should take the best of care of it.

          To use an expression, I am completely cleaned out of everything. My knapsack containing all my clothing and other indispensables was strapped to the caisson and was left behind. Please give Mr. Lindsay an order to make me some clothes and send them to me and I will send him the money the first pay day. I have nothing but one pair of torn, dirty, ragged pants, one shirt, a suit of underclothes, and a torn, dirty blouse, no stockings, no change of clothing, no paper, no money, no postage stamps.

          As for our battery, it is rumored that we go to New Orleans to refit and reorganize. I hope so. General Lee was on the top of the hill during the fight and is, in my opinion, a very brave man. When we were ordered to leave our pieces, I noticed him on his horse perfectly composed amid a terrible shower of bullets. Porter Scott conducted himself in a very courageous and gallant manner and is worthy the name of a brave man.

          Goodbye and may God protect and prosper you is the prayer of your affectionate son, D.O. Dickenson, Jr. Don’t forget my clothes.

To learn more about the Red River campaign and the Battle of Sabine Crossroads, please check out the following posts:

Source:

Letter from Private Daniel O. Dickinson, Jr., 2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery, Waukegan Weekly Gazette (Illinois), May 21, 1864, pg. 1

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